Bond set at just over $1 million for former Sorrento mayor

SORRENTO — Bail was set Friday at more than $1 million for former Sorrento mayor Wilson Longanecker Jr., who was arrested last week on 40 counts of child pornography.

State District Judge Jessie LeBlanc, of the 23rd Judicial District Court, set the bail at $1,025,000. Longanecker remained in the Ascension Parish Jail in Donaldsonville late Monday afternoon.

Longanecker’s arrest on Oct. 23 was the result of a joint investigation of the state Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crime Unit, Homeland Security Investigations, State Police and the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Last week at Longanecker’s home, 7284 Main St., in Sorrento investigators found 40 pornographic videos of children between the ages of 3 and 14 engaging in sexual activities or being posed in a sexual manner, authorities said.

Longanecker, 41, tried to hide evidence while investigators were serving the search warrant and, in addition to the 40 counts of possessing pornography involving juveniles, was booked with one count of obstruction of justice, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office said.

Longanecker, who operates a swimming pool business in Gonzales, was a former Sorrento town councilman who won the mayor’s office in a court-ordered election in May 2011, after the results of the April 2011 race were contested.

He filled the term of the former mayor, Blake LeBlanc, who had stepped down the previous October.

Longanecker, who’s the son of former two-term Sorrento Mayor Wilson Longanecker Sr., didn’t seek re-election to a full term in April 2013 and also lost his bid to regain a seat on the Sorrento Town Council.

He faces between five and 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 on each count of possession of child pornography if convicted, the Attorney General’s Office said.